We've been working with children for over 70 years, and in that time we’ve learned that to bring long-lasting changes to children's lives we need to address the needs of communities.
For that reason, the money you donate doesn’t go directly to your sponsored child or to their family. Instead your money is pooled with other sponsorship donations to fund projects in the country where your sponsored child lives.
This may be digging a well to provide clean water, building schools and training teachers, making sure that there’s enough food if the crops fail, or lobbying at national level for free primary school education.
Local children are involved in deciding, planning and carrying out these projects, and as a sponsor you’ll see the impact your donations are making, through the eyes of your sponsored child.
Plan UK expenditure
 |
 Development work - 83% |
 Fundraising and admin - 17% |
How we spend our funds
At least 80p in every pound we spend goes on supporting and delivering our development work to improve the lives of children and communities in the world’s poorest countries.
For a detailed breakdown of Plan UK’s income and expenditure, see our annual report and accounts.
Being responsible and trustworthy
We’re accountable to the children and communities we work with, and to the sponsors and donors who make that work possible.
It’s very important to us that our finances are clear and honest, so we use internal and external auditors to monitor our finances and day-to-day management. This includes evaluating all our projects at the beginning, middle and end to see how successfully they’ve met children’s needs.
We’re also one of the few global organisations to publish combined worldwide financial statements detailing our fundraising and spending. See Plan’s worldwide annual report and accounts.